THE STORY – During the Spanish Flu of 1918, a rebellious servant leads a revolt against his wealthy employer.
THE CAST – Peter Sarsgaard, Billy Magnussen, Sarah Gadon, Skye P. Marshall, Faran Tahir, Kristine Nielsen & Fisher Stevens
THE TEAM – Austin Stark & Joseph Schuman (Directors/Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 98 Minutes
Ever since the one-two punch of “Parasite” and “Knives Out” in 2019, Hollywood has been fixated on “eat the rich” satires. “Coup!” is just the latest in a long line of unsubtle dark comedies involving out-of-touch elites who find their world upended by an outsider. While it is always satisfying to see the tables turned on spoiled elites, after “Triangle of Sadness,” “Ready or Not,” “Glass Onion,” and “The Menu,” the genre has found itself increasingly incapable of finding anything new to say. Moreover, when these satires try to shake the genre up and “subvert expectations” with plot twists, like “Saltburn,” these films end up with a thematically incoherent message. Unfortunately, while “Coup!” is moderately funny, well-shot, and well-acted, it has little else to say other films and TV shows have not already said in the last year and falls into the same traps as “Saltburn” of becoming thematically muddled in its commitment to cynicism and shocking plot twists.
Set in the tumultuous year of 1918, at the peak of the Spanish Flu, “Coup!” takes a “Masque of the Red Death” style approach to the usual “eat the rich” trope. Celebrated muckraking journalist Jay (Billy Magnussen) retreats to his secluded private estate with his wife Julie (Sarah Gadon) and a handful of servants, hoping to wait out the pandemic in luxury. The intriguing question arises: why can a modest journalist afford to retreat to a luxury estate? The answer lies in his generational wealth that he is unwilling to part with, despite his impassioned writing about the working man’s plight. And as an entitled millionaire, Jay cannot even cook for himself. Enter Floyd Monk (Peter Sarsgaard), a southern drifter with a coonskin cap and cross-symbol earring. He looks like he stepped right out of the pages of a Mark Twain book where he played the villain. Jay had hired a private chef. Unfortunately, as the opening scene reveals, the chef is dead, and Floyd has decided to take his place. Upon reaching Jay’s estate, Floyd radicalizes Jay’s staff and undermines the feckless Jay in the eyes of his family, gradually coming to control the household.
Besides the period-piece setting, we’ve seen this story. Repeatedly. And despite being set in 1918, the film is very unsubtle in being about COVID (everyone is wearing masks, restaurants and stores are closed for “lockdown”). The only aspect that differentiates “Coup!” from some of the other recent “eat the rich” films is the story’s incredibly bleak and cynical direction in its ending. As with “Saltburn,” the more one unpacks the film, the more convoluted its message appears. This film is angry at the one percent but also furious at those who called for lockdowns in 2020 to protect the population from COVID-19. There is anger…but it is blanket, directionless anger. When all that anger is spread out, the satire never feels as cutting or pointed as it should.
Moreover, although only 97 minutes long, the film unfolds slowly and sometimes feels repetitive. Until the ending, it’s a cycle on repeat of Floyd outsmarting Jay and Jay looking increasingly pathetic. Although snappily edited, at times, the film feels tedious. The bubbly Alexandre Desplat-lite score attempts to compensate and sometimes seems not to trust the audience to recognize that a scene is funny without playing up the music. The result is an intrusive score that undermines the film’s punches rather than accentuates them. That’s a shame because the movie is, at times, plenty funny in its own right.
All that aside, there is plenty to enjoy about “Coup!” Despite a low budget, directors Joseph Schuman & Austin Stark (“The God Committee”), cinematographer Conor Murphy and Production designer Deana Sidney manage to craft a film that looks far more expensive than it is. The camera lingers on Jay’s palatial estate, making the wealth just apparent, and shots are framed and blocked effectively to emphasize the shift in power between characters throughout the film.
Moreover, there’s the Peter Sarsgaard of it all. Sarsgaard continues to be one of our most underappreciated character actors. Maybe one of these days, he’ll finally get the Oscar nomination he should have had for “Shattered Glass.” Floyd is a thoroughly unlikable character on paper. Still, Sarsgaard imbues this scruffy and abrasive character with just enough charm and charisma that the viewer believes he could successfully destabilize Jay’s household. There is a monologue late in the film about the fluid nature of power that could easily read as insufferably on-the-nose in the hands of a lesser actor, but Sarsgaard reads it with such a delicious sense of menace that it works. Magnussen isn’t quite believable as a figure from more than 100 years ago– something about him feels too contemporary. Still, as the film progresses, he convincingly charts the transformation from a debonair millionaire to a paranoid alcoholic, getting in touch with his sadistic side.
Between the strength of its two leads, a handsome production, and enough comedic moments that land, “Coup!” manages to be entertaining enough to keep the audience engaged, even if it fails to distinguish itself from the other “eat the rich” movies we seem to be getting every few months.
